


A Lesson in Dog Walking

by ronans



Series: Prompts [31]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: ? probably, AU, Alternate Universe, Dogs, Fluff, M/M, Pet Owners, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-14
Updated: 2015-05-14
Packaged: 2018-03-30 11:15:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3934750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ronans/pseuds/ronans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><strong>Prompt:</strong> Something with dogs maybe? Both Ian and Mickey are pet owners and meet while taking their puppies for a walk, or one of their pets gets lost and the other finds it – <a href="http://southsidemilkovich.tumblr.com/post/118908335654/prompt-something-with-dogs-maybe-both-ian-and">Anon</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lesson in Dog Walking

**Author's Note:**

> So my cat decided to be a pain and sat over my arms half the time I was writing this so it was pretty nice to write about dogs

Ian narrows his eyes at the rain splattered glass of his bedroom window. It had been steadily drizzling for about half an hour and only now, when he’d just started to contemplate leaving his bed, had it picked up. He lightly scratches his fingernails up and down his exposed abdomen and huffs, burying his face in his pillow and then stilling his hand.

A bark sounds from down the hall telling Ian to hurry the fuck up with his morning routine, but the downpour outside’s really made him want to _not_ move… preferably ever. The barking starts happening again with more ferocity and Ian just groans and half-heartedly draws up his covers to hide his face.

‘Alright!’ he croaks sleepily. There’s the noise of scratching at his bedroom door and, nope, Ian’s definitely not allowed to ignore his responsibilities any longer. He loves his dog to death, but sometimes it’s just nice to, you know, not have to venture out into the pouring rain that it loves so much to walk it.

He rolls across his mattress and nearly lands face first onto his floorboards but catches himself just in time. Ian picks up a pair of rumpled sweat pants and drags them on as he stumbles out of his bedroom remaining shirtless.

‘Hey, Lucy,’ he murmurs, bending down to scratch behind her ears as soon as he opens the door. It’s not like he doesn’t enjoy letting her curl up next to him at night, but he prefers to not have to battle through a small sea of dog hairs whenever he decides to take someone home for the night. And fuck the guy at the shelter who told him that particular breed didn’t shed.

‘Food,’ he mutters as he stands upright, gesturing for his border terrier to follow him down the hall to the kitchen. He yawns through pouring out her kibble and then putting on the coffee pot and sends a glare at the window in the kitchen because the rain doesn’t look like it’s going to be letting up any time soon.

He’s pretty much on autopilot as he trudges over to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, filling up a cup of water and dutifully taking his pills. After he’s thrown back the last one and screwed the cap back on the last bottle, he hears the patters of claws on linoleum and glances down to see Lucy sat by his feet looking up at him expectantly. He grins and pats her head, putting on a sickly sweet voice.

‘Wanna go for a walk? In the fuckin’ torrential downpour? Where your dad’s gonna have to wear rain proof everything? Huh?’ Lucy keeps up with the same look and starts to wag her tail. Ian rolls his eyes and sighs. ‘Okay, two minutes and then we’re leaving.’

He looks longingly over at his shower before making his way back to his bedroom, throwing on jeans instead of the sweat pants, a long sleeved top and a baggy blue jumper. Ian grabs Lucy’s collar and lead and chuckles at the happy bark she emits once seeing it. Donning a waterproof coat with an emergency beanie stuffed in one of the pockets, and all the necessary equipment he needs to deal with his dog on the loose in a park, he lets himself out of his apartment and eventually braves the disgusting weather.

After quietly humming under his breath for a few minutes, thankfully being drowned out by the sound of the rain and tires splashing through puddles, Ian reaches the park.

‘Go. Run. Be free,’ he says half-heartedly as soon as he shuts the park gate behind him, unleashing Lucy. She zooms off across the slippery grass as Ian leans against the fence, his breath visibly puffing in front of him. He puts his hands in his pockets to avoid shivering and waits… and waits, and waits. He wrinkles his brow and pulls out his phone to check the time, sheltering the screen from the rain. Fuck.

‘Lucy!’ he calls, pushing off the fence. ‘ _Lucy_!’

The other end of the park is coated with a thick fog, and apparently his dog’s decided it’s the perfect place to hide. Well, she’s not wrong. He flinches as a particularly large raindrop catches his eyelashes and fuck has he already had it with today. To make things worse, as he steps forward to start his search for his dog, he somehow catches his foot on something and goes careening forward head first towards the pavement.

‘Fuck! Hey!’ Ian hears just before someone wraps their arms around his middle. Like he said, Ian’s had it with today.

‘Jesus,’ Ian wheezes, scrambling to stand up. His footing’s already dodgy considering the ground of the park is basically liquefied from the rain.

‘You okay? Hey- get back here, you little shit!’ the man suddenly yells. Ian finally gets a chance to look at his savior’s face and… wow. He bends down to reattach his dog to its leash as soon as it returns to him. Some of his rain slicked dark hair falls in front of his blue eyes but he still manages to glare up at Ian through it. ‘Earth to ginger dick, you okay?’

Ian snickers in surprise and runs his hand through his damp hair. The hood of his coat had fallen back during the fall and he’d been a little too preoccupied to put it back in place. ‘And how the hell would you know anything about my dick?’

‘Anyone’d think you hit your fuckin’ head on the pavement when you fell,’ the guy said, clicking his tongue. ‘If you shit on the path, we’re gonna have a fucking problem,’ he directs at his suspicious looking dog. The sopping wet toy poodle puppy – a strange breed choice for a guy who looks like that, Ian automatically thinks – dips its head like it knew exactly what the man was saying. Ian chuckles before he remembers himself.

‘Shit, uh… Have you seen a little border terrier anywhere?’ he asks. He then shakes his head and places his hand over his forehead. ‘Oh, thanks, by the way… for catching me.’

The stranger narrows his eyes and adjusts his hood at which point Ian puts his own back over his head. ‘No problem. And nah, I haven’t seen anything. Stupid weather to walk your dog in.’

Ignoring the fact that he’s not the only one walking his dog in the “stupid weather”, Ian smirks. ‘She’s not gonna walk herself. Well, I guess she could, but she doesn’t know anything about road safety.’ Ian grins until it’s seriously clear the other guy’s not going to shift the whole unimpressed glare he’s got going on. Ian sniffs and glances away, suddenly feeling extremely fucking awkward.

After a moment of excruciating silence (aside from the roaring rain), the guy rolls his eyes and holds out the handle of the leash in Ian’s direction. ‘You walk my dog for me, I help you find yours.’

Ian cocks an eyebrow. ‘Uh… what?’

Stranger, person, man with unfairly attractive eyes, whatever Ian wants to land on labelling him, shoves the lead against Ian’s chest and then stuffs his hands in his pockets when Ian takes hold of it. He tips his head in the direction Lucy ran off in, the way Ian was originally headed, and then trudges forward. He stops after a few paces, realizing Ian’s not following him. He huffs, his breath puffing out in front of him like Ian’s has been doing all morning. ‘You wanna find your damn dog or not?’

Ian snaps out of his slightly startled daze and moves forward to join the other man, the rain soaked pathetic looking poodle trailing after. Ian stares down at it for a few steps and then looks at the man’s profile. ‘So… why a tiny poodle?’

Another deep sigh. ‘Guess I just like to surprise people.’

‘No, really, why?’

The guy – shit, Ian still hasn’t caught his name, he should really get on that – stares at him, seemingly irritated but Ian can pretty much tell it’s just for show. ‘He’s just cute as fuck, a’right?’

Ian sinks his teeth into his bottom lip trying to dampen his grin. ‘I bet you’re one of those people who argues that its fur color is “magnolia” when it’s blatantly just white.’

He sticks up his middle finger at Ian and shakes his head in an exasperated way. Ian just smiles and carries on talking.

‘He have a name?’

‘The fuck’s it to you?’

‘Well I am walking him,’ Ian responds, shaking the lead a little as if he needs extra physical proof.

‘…Dog.’

Ian stops walking and covers his face with both of his hands, the handle of the leash digging into his cheekbone slightly. There’s a squelching sound as the owner of “Dog” stops walking too. ‘Dog? Fucking _Dog_? That’s his name?’ Ian asks incredulously when he tears his hands away from his face. The other man bristles.

‘Shut the fuck up, man.’

‘You know that’s already been done a thousand times before, right? In a joke way.’

‘I didn’t fucking _decide_ to call him Dog. I just… dunno what to call him yet. Look at him, he’s fucking tiny and shit ‘n I haven’t had him for long.’

‘Dog, though… At least call ‘im Fido, or Buster, or _something_ generic in the meantime. Actually, okay, I guess even those sound more original than-‘

‘Alright, alright, you made your fuckin’ point.’

Ian starts their slow pace back up, keeping a look out for his own dog among the fog but at the same time wanting to continue making conversation with the other man. Yeah, he should do the name thing right about now.

‘Do _you_ have a name?’

‘Dog.’

Ian lets out a short peal of laughter and spies the guy beaming, pleased with himself, from the corner of his eye.

‘Nah, it’s Mickey.’

Ian purses his lips and nods his head, giving Mickey another once-over. ‘Mickey… I’m Ian.’

Mickey nods back and it’s a little weird for a few seconds, neither of them really sure how to follow that route of conversation. Ian can’t exactly compliment the guy on his name, and though it’d be preferable to fit a little bit of flirting in before they find his runaway dog and inevitably part ways, he’s not just going to jump in from the most stupid angle.

‘You’re a tough fucker to rescue from death by falling over, you know that?’

Ian grins and peeks over at Mickey before calling for his dog. Dog, on the other hand, just trots along happily next to Ian. Apparently Ian’s dog’s not the only one who likes the rain. ‘ _Lucy_! Why’s that?’

Mickey wiggles his nose slightly and then just shrugs, seeming to have dropped the topic. Ian raises his eyebrows and waits a tiny bit longer for the response. ‘Dunno… Just… you’re a… I’m making conversation, whatever, take it or don’t, I don’t give a fuck.’ He looks over at Ian quickly and then brackets his mouth with his hands. ‘Lucy!’

Ian chuckles and then cups his hands around his own mouth. ‘Lucy!’

‘Fuck, your dog deaf or somethin’?’ Mickey asks, squinting towards the other end of the park. Ian thinks he can see a little movement but he’s not quite sure.

‘Nope, she probably found a pile of sticks or something like that. She keeps them to herself, doesn’t like fetch much.’

Mickey snorts quietly. ‘Sounds like my kinda dog.’

‘I thought Dog was your kinda dog?’

‘Fuck you,’ Mickey laughs, nudging Ian’s arm with his own. He clears his throat directly after and puts more space between them like he’s just remembered they met about ten or so minutes ago. Ian doesn’t care, though. In fact, he likes it quite a lot. He decides to pick up on the topic thread Mickey'd provided.

‘You think your dog would like my dog, then?’

Mickey pulls his eyebrows together and then bends over minutely to slap at his thighs, trying a different method to get Lucy back. When he straightens, he answers. ‘Probably. He’s pretty friendly. Shocked the hell outta me.’ He snickers and looks down at his dog, fur dripping with the still pouring rain but it’s obvious that when dry it’s disgustingly soft and cuddly. ‘Don’t know. Gotta wait until they sniff each other’s asses.’

‘Always wondered why humans haven’t picked that kind of greeting up.’

‘You’re gross, man,’ Mickey chuckles before yelling for Lucy again. Ian does the same and watches as something suddenly comes barreling towards them.

‘Lucy!’ Ian calls, but this time it’s more in relief. He hands Mickey the leash back and bends down to rub at the completely drenched terrier’s sides. Her tail starts wagging and her tongue pops out of the side of her mouth and Ian’s never understood why she loves the rain so much.

‘Happy little fucker, ain’t she?’

Ian shifts his gaze to Mickey and then back to Lucy as he clips her back onto her own lead. ‘Yeah. Storms and shit weather are her thing.’

‘Sucks to be you,’ Mickey comments, smiling reservedly. ‘Glad you got your dumbass dog back, I’ll see ya.’

Ian startles at the brush off and catches Mickey’s arm before he can walk away. Fuck it, it’s now or never, and Ian doesn’t really like the prospect of the never option. And he’s not just thinking that because he wants to be around to advise Mickey on a daily basis that he needs to finally pick a name for his dog.

‘Hey, uh, wait a sec…’

Mickey lifts an eyebrow and cautiously regards Ian. Ian thinks he detects some mild hope there, too, which is encouraging.

‘You wanna go get some coffee? I know a dog-friendly café a couple blocks from here and I think if I stay out in the cold any longer _I’ll_ get a cold, so-‘

‘Not really a big fan of prissy coffee shops, Ian, gotta say,’ Mickey replies, completely dashing Ian’s hopes. Until, of course, he inevitably lifts them right back up again. ‘But fine. We’re going to a bar next time, though. I’m buyin’.’

As Mickey whistles and yanks lightly at Dog’s lead to get him to start walking again, Ian grins wider than he ever thought he could on a day as horrible looking as this, because they haven’t even had a first time, really, but _there’s going to be a next time_.

**Author's Note:**

> Not taking prompts right now, but I'm on [Tumblr](http://southsidemilkovich.tumblr.com) if you want to talk or something


End file.
